"Raasakka's music comes close to skin and infiltrates everyday life. The music is tender and confusing in a touching way."
– Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen
"An unforgettable experience"
– Reetta Pitkäkoski, Helsingin Sanomat
"Masterful handling of sound colours"
– Wilhelm Kvist, Hufvudstadsbladet
"The world premiere by Ville Raasakka picks up to denounce the lack of forest protection in Finland. 'The Harvest' lets a chainsaw massacre roar."
– Christoph Irrgeher, Wiener Zeitung
"The sound world is stupefyingly vibrant and multi-faceted"
– Annikki Alku, Demokraatti
"Majestic"
– Samuli Tiikkaja, Helsingin Sanomat
"An independent and convincing voice"
– Michael Rebhahn, Neue Zeitschirft für Musik
"Raasakka's music has character and strength"
– Jukka Isopuro, Helsingin Sanomat
Engagements in 2024-2026
BBC Symphony Orchestra // London, United Kingdom
Rainy days Festival // Philharmonie Luxembourg
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival // United Kingdom
Klangforum Wien // Vienna, Austria
Mivos Quartet // New York City, United States
ISCM World New Music Days // Lisbon, Portugal
Manca Dornik, accordion // Basel, Switzerland
Raphaël Dubois, guitar // Tours, France
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity // Banff, Canada
​
Lorelei Dowling, bassoon, Klangforum Wien // Vienna, Austria
Switch~ Ensemble // New York City, United States
Annette Bik, violin, Klangforum Wien // Vienna, Austria
Ensemble Mise-en, Yumi Suehiro // New York, United States
SpóÅ‚dzielnia Muzyczna Ensemble // Krakow, Poland
Kaisa Kortelainen, flute // Helsinki, Finland
Avanti! Chamber Orchestra // Helsinki, Finland
Oulu Sinfonia // Oulu, Finland
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra // Turku, Finland
Ville Aslak
Raasakka
Ville Aslak Raasakka (1977-) is a Helsinki-based Finnish composer specialized in ecology. His works incorporate field recordings from coal power plants, coal mines, oil rigs, forests, trees, plants and underwater sites. He is currently focused in bioacoustics and cooperation with biologists.
​​
His works are performed by the Klangforum Wien (Vienna), BBC Symphony Orchestra (London), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Helsinki), Mivos Quartet (New York City) at festivals including Eclat (Stuttgart), Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (Australia), Festival de Royaumont (France), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (United Kingdom), June in Buffalo (University of Buffalo) and Festival Archipel (Geneva).
​
His orchestral work Black cloud, under ground (2019) received a recommendation at the Unesco International Rostrum of Composers (Argentina).
​
Raasakka is a composition teacher at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), where he also researches and teaches ecological practices. He has guest lectured at the Theatre Academy (Helsinki), the Fine Arts Academy (Helsinki), the Aalto University (Helsinki), The Royal Academy of Music (London), The Liszt Academy (Budapest) and the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (Germany).
Latest Work
The Meaning of Zero (2023) 55'
Music for a Dance work
Commissioned by the Petri Kekoni Company,
Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and the Dance House Helsinki
​
Premiere 27 October 2023, Dance House Helsinki
Choreography, scenography and concept: Petri Kekoni
Electronic and acoustic music: Ville Aslak Raasakka
​
Dancers: Tanja Illukka, Meeri Lempiäinen, Anna Stenberg, Pekka Louhio, Saku Koistinen
​
Musicians: Iida-Vilhelmiina Sinivalo / Cello, Martta Jämsä / flute, Livia Schweizer / flute recorded, Anders Pohjola, Tuukka Tervo / mixing / Avanti! Chamber Orchestra
​
Created for five dancers and two musicians, our latest work The Meaning of Zero is a furious cross-disciplinary exploration into zeroness. The concept of zero has been fundamental to human development and it has formed the basis of all modern technology. Our piece fuses mathematical thinking with flourishing, impulsive movement energy.
​
The art of Petri Kekoni Company has always revolved around fundamental human questions. In this work, we continue our excavation towards the ground truths and concrete mental foundations of the society we have constructed. The planned stage design reflects this idea with a foundation-like base that underlies everything that is on top of it.
​
The concept of zero is basic to all animals and is not exclusive to humans. According to research, crows have been able to recognize the concept of zero, which has led us to select the image of a crow as the visual identifier of the piece. The way that the idea of zero permeates the living world tells us something essential about our universe and of understanding; in order to have something, first we must have a not-something.
​
The Harvest (2022) 10'
for Chamber Orchestra
Commissioned by the Klangforum Wien
and Nyky Ensemble, conducted by Bas Wiegers
Premiere 16th March 2022
Wiener Konzerthaus, Mozart-saal
Vienna, Austria
An estimated 5% of Finnish forests are old-growth forests, which have a healthy biodiversity of species. Half of these old-growth forests are protected, and the remainder is relentlessly being cut down by the government for easy profit, only to be stopped by the interventions of nature protection agencies.
The current forest machines cut trees in frightening effectivity, within seconds. I've used the sounds of these machines and transcribed them to the instruments. The moaning of the hydraulics, the buzzing of the saws and the beeping of the control panels are the key sound elements of the work.
The effectivity of these sounds dissolve, and sink into a state of disbelief. This music is mourning the total loss of natural biodiversity, and the resulting constant extinction of species. The clear-cut forests never regain their biodiversity again, and we are left with lifeless tree farms. Pretending an image of a forest.
–> Klangforum Wien
–> Nyky Ensemble
–> Tapiola sinfonietta
Steam Engine (2022) 20'
for Soprano and Baroque Orchestra
Commissioned and premiered by
Olga Heikkilä and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra
​
Premiere 24th April 2022
The House of Nobility
Helsinki, Finland
The mass production of steam engines has been marked as the beginning of climate change in environmental research. The steam engine not only operated with coal, but enabled the extensive mining of coal. The Atmospheric Engine, developed and patented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712 in Cornwall was the first mass produced steam engine.
This composition is connected to this particular place and time. To the sounds produced by the Newcomen steam engine, and to a composer based in London in 1712, Georg Friedrich Händel.
The texts in the work are historical accounts on steam engines, coal mining and coal burning in Britain between 1661-1842. These include court hearings of workers in coal mines, reports of air quality in London and machine-romanticist poetry on steam engines.
I’ve used sound recordings of the historical steam engines as a starting point for the composition. The orchestra reproduces the sounds of the steam engine with the baroque instruments, and flash-like citations from Händel appear. Olga Heikkilä, soprano and commissioner of this work, recorded numerous readings of the texts, and the recodings, our workshops and Olga’s voice form the basis for the vocal expression of this work.
The resulting work is a hybrid of instrumental concrete music and dramatic baroque cantata. The sopranos expression ranges from microtonal singing to sprechgesang, and from a human narrator to a living, breathing steam engine.
​
​